A boy and his blankee {giveaway}

I want to tell you a story about a boy and his blankee. It started a couple months ago when his eyes lit up as I pulled it out of the package. Bright blues, greens, oranges, purples, reds, and yellows; his “color blankee” as he likes to call it. That night I tucked him into bed with his blankee wrapped around his body; it was minkee soft and he liked telling me over and over again all the beautiful colors he saw.

The next night after picking out stories for us to read in the rocking chair he quickly ran over to his bed and grabbed the blankee to join us for story time. I draped it over his body to keep him warm but was thankful it was big enough to fall around my chilled legs as well. Over the next few weeks it traveled to the couch for days he wasn’t feeling well or to Mom’s bed for early morning snuggles. Some days he pulled it over his shoulders turning it into a colorful cape but every night it ended up back in the little white toddler bed to keep him warm. The boy fell in love with his blankee.

The cape in action

Want to fall in love with your own minkee blankee? Know someone who is expecting and want to shower them with something special? My friends at itti bitti want to make that happen by offering one of the readings their own blankee in one of the brand new limited edition prints. This 39 by 29.5 inch “cot size” minkee blankee is double layered with print on top and solid white on the back with a white trim at the top; it is incredibly soft and retails for $39.95.

To enter: head over to itti bitti’s site and tell me one other thing you like in their new limited edition print. Please leave your email address in the comments otherwise I have no way of contacting you!

Extra: follow @busylandb and @ittibittiUS on Twitter then tweet about the giveaway
 Giveaway closes on December 16th and is open to US and Canadian residents over 18.

 This sponsored post is part of itti bitti’s “Fall in Love with itti bitti” campaign and I was given the Carnival print minkee blankee to cuddle with my little one. The whole toddler falling in love part was completely on his own. I first met itti bitti through Eco- Distribution USA over the summer when we fell in love with their cloth diapers; ever since then I’ve had nothing but impeccable customer service and great things to say! Thanks itti bitti and Eco- Distribution!
http://www.eco-distributionusa.com
http://www.ittibitti.us/
http://www.facebook.com/ittibitti 
http://twitter.com/ittibittius 
http://www.youtube.com/use/ittibittinappyco

cardio & food {story of my life}

Small steps, that’s what it’s taking to find motivation again. I wrote a small reasonable To Do list for after work yesterday however that was even too much. I did however get a few things done. I went to the gym and did an hour of cardio while watching trash TV (which I feel is the best way to do cardio) and I was able to find inspiration for my Christmas decorations. Tonight I hope to get in a cardio class and then work on executing the rest of the decorating. After that it’s side projects and cleaning…but only if I can handle it. I need to enjoy life, enjoy the small moments; even if it just means 1 or 2 small moments a day. Here are a few moments I’ve enjoyed this past week….

Birthday breakfast for my Mom

Eggs Benedict and silver dollar pancakes with apple pear topping

Hand made whole wheat pizza dough

 Stick with me because the 2 sponsored post will be up before the week’s end. And since I’ve put last week’s giveaway on the back burner I’ve decided to keep it open until Friday. I’ll announce the winner Monday and then announce the winner’s of this week’s [yet to be posted] giveaways next Friday. Wow, I hope that didn’t confuse everyone. We have loved all these products so I hope you have a chance to read about the great companies and enter to win something for your little one.

Please excuse me {for I've turned into a pile of mush}

A slow creep; putting off one thing here or there…not really noticing anything different. Well not until I’ve realized how many hours I’ve spent sitting on the cough in a 24 hour period do I realize, I’ve got a problem. The diagnosis is somewhere between lack of motivation, lack of determination, and sheer laziness. It started right after Thanksgiving when I was just exhausted from all the hustle; I skipped the gym for family time and ate sweets because I wasn’t going to the gym. The week started and I was in too much denial to actually meal plan or grocery shop. Then I started neglected cleaning up the house, skipping daily chores like laundry, or having the motivation to do much of anything. I wasn’t feeling well so I kept skipping the gym and eventually I traded decorating the house for a couple hours of Grey’s Anatomy. 
 

There is no way I’m blaming the first season’s of Grey’s for this ripple effect but oh my gosh it’s so much easier to waste away my night watching drama at Seattle Grace then facing reality that I’ve abounded myself. The breaking point came Saturday when after spending the morning at a craft show I came home and watched 3 hours of Grey’s on the couch; the boys were out so I felt less guilty putting life on the back burner. Then that night while I was home alone instead of turning on Christmas music and decorating I spent another few hours watching Grey’s. I’d say I watched about 6 to 7 hours of Grey’s sitting on the couch in one day. Yep, that was my low.

Christmas decorating should be fun, it should feel good to have a clean house, I like how I feel after the gym….but instead, I was turning into a pile of mush. There were also things I needed to do, like work on a side social networking project or post sponsored blogs…but instead, I just sat. 

Finally last night after feeling like such a sorry piece of nothing I had the motivation to do, something. I folded laundry and actually put it away, I organized a stack of boxes in the playroom, I cleaned up all the little messes in the living room… I did something! I couldn’t, however, find it in me to decorate the tree (so Davy did it) or decorate the house or sweep or deep clean or work on the other 50 things on my to-do list. But I did something…and that’s saying something. I hated loosing myself over these last few weeks; I don’t know why it happened. I apologize to everyone who has suffered from this laziness and feel awful for abandoning it all. I’m feeling refreshed today, I’m taking it one step at a time, I’m getting it back together again.

Toddler eats. {giveaway}

If you haven’t already at one point in your life you’re going to wonder what’s the best child’s plate out there is. With a baby any simple bowl is all you may need but as that baby turns into a toddler and solids are introduced it gets a little tricky. A bowl for the mush, a plate for the solids, and what about keeping them from all running together? I introduce to you the plate to solve all your problems: Green Eats divided plates! 

It’s silly to say but I thought I had good toddler plates…until the day these came in the mail! They’re a good sturdy weight made from 100% recycled plastic milk containers and contain no BPA, melamine, or phthalates AND come in 4 great colors. My favorite part about the plates is the depth of the dividers; they’re slightly curved and so deep! Finally a place to put yogurt or applesauce without frustrating little hands trying to push a spoon around every corner for a good bite. 

The pictures below are a Saturday breakfast of eggs, chicken sausage link (sliced), hash browns, and homemade applesauce; it gives a good idea of how much you can fit on one plate while still keeping it separate. The dividers are also good for keeping dip contained or a place for a scope of homemade baby food next to slew of Puffs. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t used them for time to time!

 

 

The great people at The Green Nursery are offering a set of 2 Green Eats plates for one lucky US reader. The Green Nursery is a great earth friendly website offering an array of everything for your kiddos. It’s easy to navigate and the best part about the site is having the knowledge that anything you pick out has already been tested and chosen as a legitimate green product. There is no need to browse 10 different sites for toys, dinnerware, or strollers because it’s all right here at the Green Nursery! For all of you shopping for Christmas they have a free shipping promotion going on for orders over $49! 

Simply fan/like their Facebook page and then check out their site and tell me which color you like best in the comment section. Anonymous comments will be ignored so please make sure an email address is provided.

For extra entries tweet about the giveaway and make sure to mention @busylandb and a link so they can enter too!

I will announce the winner next week!

Good luck and special thanks to The Green Nursery for hosting this giveaway!

For the love of food {and family}.

Our Thanksgiving break was filled with family, food, family, shopping, and more family! It’s always a treat when my sister and her family are in town so we try to spend as much time as possible together. The kids played a lot of Wii sports and time outside jumping on Grammy’s trampoline. It’s adorable to see how grown up they all are now and how independent their playtimes are (well, until the fighting begins). The adults spent a lot of time playing wildly competitive games of volleyball now that my parents have a full size net in their backyard! 

 

 

Thanksgiving day itself was incredibly long for me; 24 hours of celebrating to be exact! I spent the night before prepping my 4 dishes to take to their respected homes for feasting which kept me on my feet for over four hours. The next morning was more cooking until our festivities began around 11:30am. We cooked, feasted, and played at my mom’s until close to 4:30pm when we packed up for round 2, Davy’s mom’s house. Is it terribly first world and glutinous of me to say we were still so full we couldn’t even eat a plate at dinner round 2? 

Love birds. Best picture I've ever taken of my parents...please note the knife positioning....purposefully.

The "twins" in our family.

 

By 8pm I was back at my mom’s gearing up for Black Friday. I wish they kept the 5am door busters like years past but since everything began at midnight so did we. We were at Wal-Mart by 9pm and didn’t stop until 6am Friday morning; you heard right, all night long. 

Our pre Black Friday faces! All smiles were gone at 6am!

My favorite moments were spending time with our families; we are so blessed to have a large happy family that enjoys each other enough to make the effort to be together. 

My other favorite moments were cooking. My grandmother is southern to her core and my entire childhood was spent sharing the Thanksgiving table with my dad’s family. Now that we no longer visit them my Grandma’s passed down handwritten recipe cards have become somewhat treasured. We’ve had her famous Potato Yeast Rolls recipe for 6 years and none of us have been brave enough to attempt, until now. I took all four pages and studied them before prepping. I loved reading her side note commentary such as instead of a baking time it says (underlined) “DON’T overcook, DON’T undercook” or “ALWAYS use real butter”.  It was tedious and exciting and slightly emotional but oh my goodness, it paid off. They cooked to perfection and I have never been more proud of something I baked.

 

All the leftovers are gone and we are going out tonight to purchase our Christmas tree…everything about the Holidays make me happy. It’s the most wonderful time of the year after all, right?

My very silly boys.

MishMosh.

I’ve been struggling with being sick since last week and finally Sunday morning it smacked me so hard I couldn’t get out of bed for hours. I literally bounced from the bed to the couch for 9 hours and then sent myself back to the couch yesterday afternoon in hopes I would feel better. Today, the color has returned, a smile is somewhat showing, and the faucet on my nose has finally turned off.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. We can just pretend I wrote another mushy post like last year and call me Wife of The Year! Davy was a sweetie pie and brought me flowers, a card, and Monopoly Starbucks money for my crack Gold card. Seeing as I couldn’t even taste yesterday we figured there was no point in going out to a fancy restaurant or even going on a forced date and have postponed for another night. Thanks to everyone who wishes us well via Twitter or Facebook; we are so blessed to have so many wonderful people who support us!

While being a sick blob my girlfriend brought over a sack of chick flicks (because our movie collection still consists of every stupid guy comedy from Davy’s bachelor life) for my enjoyment. Yesterday I pulled out season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy and loved every minute of it. I have such fond memories of watching season after season every week with my girlfriends not to mention how awesome the show used to be back then. I love when a show or song or movie sparks those special memories treasured from years ago.

And one more mishmash to make you roll your eyes and smile. Yesterday in the car Moses asked if we were going home (as he recognized our house was located just 1 street away from the current road we were on)…when I told him no and that we were going to Grammy’s he looked at me and said “Are you telling the truth?”

Breaking Dawn broken down.

The Twilight Breaking Dawn buzz is in full effect and instead of writing 500 140 character tweets about it I thought I’d break it down for everyone who was not privileged to see it at midnight last night. I guess the real privileged were those who got to see the special 8pm showing that I was completely unaware of…but that’s a different story!


Cinematography/ Character appearance -9. I am proud to say they FINALLY got it together with the physical appearance of the characters and boy did it make a difference! No more awful wigs, bad coloring, and ridiculous mega glow. The cinematography was clear and crisp making everything look good!

Wedding- I won’t give away much but just want to say I was EXTREMELY happy with the song they chose!

Honeymoon- 8. For the first time in the entire series Bella and Edward finally act like they are in love. The laughing, the loving, the embracing; all good! For those who were worried about the bedroom scenes…calm down, it’s PG-13. If your child has ever seen a PG-13 movie then there is nothing to worry about because it’s a lot of hype followed by very little action. If you were disappointed by the very little action then you should be watching True Blood not Tweeny Twilight!

Baby/Birth- 8. When they say in the book that this “thing” is sucking the life out of her, they’re not kidding! They did a great job at making Bella look AWFUL and most of us had hands over mouths in shock at how she really looked like she was dying. It was pretty graphic when Bella’s life is literally slipping away however if you were worried the birth itself would be too instance, it’s not. There’s blood, there is a baby, there is a lot of cutting in and out, and there is a really sickly Bella lying on a table.

Overall- A quality 7. I say 7 because there was some extremely cheesy scenes that sucked the goodness out of the movie; it lost “cool points” so to speak. Once you see the movie you will know the exact scene I’m talking about and can I be the first one to say they all sound like Transformers during that scene! If you read the books and love the story line then you’re going to like to movie. If you’re being dragged along to see it out of the blue you’re going to hate it. If you are worried about taking your teenager daughter, don’t be. The morbid scene is more graphic then the love scene. The movies were made based off of the crazy fan base the books carry therefore don’t expect award winning moments. I personally liked it better than 2 and 3 because it’s been so long since I’ve read the book I didn’t remember in detail the plot line. They did a good job of making small references back to the other movies which for a fan is everything.

Will I see it again? Of course. After all I did leave a Twilight reading husband at home last night so eventually we will watch it together.

Will I see the next and final movie at midnight? You bet. It’s tradition. It’s the one night a year my girlfriends and I count down for and tweet non stop like teenagers about it and get giggly in the theater over inside jokes from high school.

If your reaching over to grab the nearest trash can then you should have stopped reading at the title! I'm a wife, mom, adult but I can still have my tween moment!